google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Thursday, March 13, 2008 Alan P. Olschwang

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Mar 13, 2008

Thursday, March 13, 2008 Alan P. Olschwang

Theme: Quote

17A: Start of Will Durant quote: No man who's

40A: Part 2 of quote: In a hurry is quite

66A: End of quote: Civilized

Great haste makes great waste, take your time, "slow down, I just wanna get to know you...".

But it's a bit overkill to categorize people in a hurry as uncivilized. Who is not in a hurry these days? However, when you consider that Durant and his wife spent 40 years writing The Story of Civilization, it's not that a far-fetched concept. Their life is the greatest love story I've ever heard (a marriage that lasted 69 years). They died within 2 weeks of each other. NPR did a great piece on them 2 years ago I think.

A few thorny spots for me today, but I managed to get away relatively unscathed. Oh, I started from the upper left corner again, could not break my old habit.

Across entries:

5A: New entrant into society: DEB (Debutante). Do you know that the columnist who named Jackie Kennedy (then Jacqueline Bouvier) Deb of the Year in 1947 is Oleg Cassini's brother? Oleg of course later became Jackie's favorite couturier.

9A: Of the Vatican: PAPAL. I blushed when I read excerpts of Pope Benedict's first encyclical - Deus Caritas Est. It's just a bit overwhelming to hear a Pope's reflection on Eros.

14A: Ecole attendee: ELEVE. French word for student.

16A: European river: RHONE

20A: Muffled crash: THUD

21A: Sighting: ESPIAL. Tiger Woods has won an amazing 18 ESPY Awards.

23A: Cool dude: CAT. How I miss Ed Bradley! He is a real cool cat. Scott Pelley starts to grate on my nerve now.

24A: Islamic women's quarters: HAREMS. Often see Oda clued as Harem room. Seraglio carries the same meaning - a sequestered area for wives. Hijab is the headscarf Muslim women wear. Houri is the beautiful virgin promised to those faithfuls in their Koranic paradise.

30A: Dozen: TWELVE

33A: Studio letters: MGM

44A: Zhivago's love: LARA. Dr. Zhivago is Omar Sharif's best movie in my view. Juliet Christie's performance was also impeccable. This movie made living in cold freezing Minnesota very romantic. By the way, this movie is also the favorite of our Chief Justice John Roberts.

45A: "Olympia" painter: MANET. OK, MANET painted beautiful women, MONET painted beautiful scenery.

46A: Bert's twin: NAN. Bobbsey twins. I had no idea. Only knew Nan (or sometimes Naan) as Indian bread.

47A: Kept looking: STARED

50A: Make booties, e. g. : KNIT. I always thought baby's shoes are Bootees, different spelling, no?

52A: Choir section: TENORS

55A: Scant: SPARSE

59A: Last of a log: ASH. I groaned at this clue.

61A: Actress Sobieski: LEELEE. This girl does look like Helen Hunt.

63A: Frozen fail: HAIL

64A: Tea of "Spanglish": LEONI. She is in A League of Their Own too.

70A: Heating apparatus: STOVE

73A: Even more calamitous: DIRER. That's what I feel about Bernanke's rather innovative rescue package. I mean, the plan allows the banks to use their risky home-loan securities as collateral. It does not make much sense to me, but what do I know? At least, the market did not retreat much yesterday.

Down entires:

3D: Madagascar primate: LEMUR. It looks like this. Indri is a short-tailed Lemur.

4D: Ducks and dodges: EVADES. Is duck and dodge (together) a phrase? Only knew Mitt Romney ducks, and he dodges.

6D: Morse dashes: DAHS. Unknown, dots and dits are familiar to me, though I have no idea what distinguishes "dot" from "dit".

9D: Undergraduate courses: PRE-LAW

11D: China: PORCELAIN

12D: Actress Paquin: ANNA. She won an Oscar for Piano, when she was only 11 years old. Interesting: Shirley Temple is not the youngest Oscar winner. She was only given an honary Oscar for achievemetns when she was 6. Taturn O'Neal was the youngest, age 10, for Paper Moon. Never seen it.

18D: Certain strong wind: WESTER. Wind or storm coming from the west.

27D: Andean country: PERU. It's due south of Florida, not California. Learned something from the uppish Alex Trebeck yesterday.

31D: "La dolce ___": VITA. Never saw the movie (The Sweet Life)

33D: Wire measures: MILS

34D: Biting insect: GNAT

35D: Long runs: MARATHONS

37D: Hand-woven rug: RYA. It's "a handwoven Scandinavian rug with a thick pile and usually a strong, colorful design."

42D: Judo teacher: SENSEI. "Sen" means first, "sei" means giving birth. Together, Sensei means teacher. It might sound too much of a stretch to you, but it's a gimmie for me. Cultural thing I think.

43D: Trademark swab: Q TIP

48D: Sign up: ENLIST

51D: Pacific destination: TAHITI. Look at this Gauguin's Tahitian Women on the Beach.

54D: Shift out of place: SLIDE

56D: Stubble cutter: RAZOR

57D: Sifting utensil: SIEVE

59D: Ray of "Battle Cry": ALDO. Repeat offender.

67D: Leary's drug: LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide). The Acid.

I am very interested in the time you spent on today's puzzle, so please chime in on the Comment section. Also congratulations to Dennis for his "a bit over 5 minutes" record today.

C. C.

30 comments:

Dick said...

Boy did I screw up with 11D. I had my mind fixed on China the country and could not get porcelain. Also, I never heard of 61A Sobieski but that is not unusual as I am a dunce when it comes to movies and actor/actresses. Absolutely no interest in show people.
Other than that this was a pretty easy puzzle. Took me about 15 minutes.

Dick said...

Big part of problem with 11D was that 16A European river was Rhone and not Rhine as I put in. Guess I spent too much time in Germany.

Zhouqin (C.C.) Burnikel said...

Dick,

15 minutes is pretty good. What's your record?

Dennis said...

Somehow really aced this one; think I set a record. So far, a Google-less week.
Couple minor points:
"No man whos" is the first part of the quote (apostrophe missing, of course).
73A is "direr", as in more dire.
18D, a "wester", is just the opposite of an "easter", as in "nor'easter"

Zhouqin (C.C.) Burnikel said...

Good morning Dennis,

I've corrected my mistakes, thank you.

I am just so curious, what's your record? Do you time yourself every day?

Katherine said...

How can 17 across be "no man who is", when 7 down is "elope"? And 73 across can't be dicer because 56 down is "razor". 73 down has to be direr. Did I miss something?

Katherine said...

Oops, I saw my mistake about 17 across.

Dennis said...

Good morning, C.C.
Once in a while, I'll look at my watch when I start; I love competition, even if it's with myself. This one was a bit over 5 minutes, which I don't think I'll ever touch again.

Zhouqin (C.C.) Burnikel said...

Katherine,

Sorry for the confusion.

I've corrected my mistakes after Dennis pointed them out.

No excuse. Too haste in typing. "No man who's in a hurry is quite civilized." See how quickly I forgot what I learned?

Dennis,

I stand here in awe of you.

Will double check tomorrow before I publish the entries.

Anonymous said...

I, like dick, also got stuck on China as the country not dishware.

Today's seemed easy for me for whatever reason - 20 minutes.

As for 61A Leelee Sobieski - I've seen her in "The Glass House" and "Joan of Arc".

Happy Thursday everyone!

Anonymous said...

46A - I think Bert and Nan were one set of the Bobbsey twins - very old series of children's books

Zhouqin (C.C.) Burnikel said...

I just added one short note at the end of my blog entry today asking for other readers' solving time.

I think I spent about 30-35 minutes...before I googled for help.

Dick said...

C.C.
I never paid an attention to time until I started reading your blog but if I had to guess it would probably be in the 10 minute range.

MH said...

I took about 20 minutes to do this one. It would have been shorter but I had "eludes" as 4D. This had the quote starting out "NO MUN __OS". Had to get the rest of the quote and then go back to discover my mistake. The rest of it was pretty easy. I started in the upper left, couldn't get the middle, went to upper right and worked counter-clockwise

Anonymous said...

Good morning! (West Coast-Seattle chiming in). Took me about 30 minutes and then I had to come 'see' you folks.

6A. Deb? I get it now
6D. Dahs? Thanks for the explanation.
11D. China? Like others I was thinking the country.

Only got 61A (LeeLee) because of 48D.

Thanks all of you for being here.

See ya tomorrow.

AlohaSpirit

sallyjane said...

Good afternoon, everyone!

I don't actually time myself because many days I'm doing the puzzle in stages while fixing breakfast or something else. But if I had to guess, this one took me probably 10-12 minutes.

One minor complaint, and this is the same as the other day, when two other "have to know it" answers crossed each other. Art is not exactly my strong suit, so when a clue could be either (45A.) MANET or MONET, I wait until I get the cross to fill it in. Unless, of course, it's a painting I know for sure. Today you not only had to know which painter was correct, you also had to know the obscure answer (37D.) RYA. I hate when that happens. OK, I'm over it!

24A. HAREMS - I always thought a harem was where the concubines were kept. Lesson learned today!

9D. PRE-LAW - Confusing clue with the plural.

18D. WESTER - I thought the winds were called Westerlies. Not familiar with this version.

37D. RYA - Had absolutely no clue!

42D. SENSEI - Believe it or not, I remember this term from the movie, The Karate Kid. :)

Ciao!

Sallyjane

Kyle B. Doeden said...

I had Monet too. I like the Durant quote. At least they gave us a clue as to who said it today. I absolutely hate anonymous quips.

Anonymous said...

MY INTERPRETATION IS DOTS AND DASHES ARE HOW MORSE CODE IS REPRESENTED IN WRITEN FORMAT (... --- ... IS SOS FOR EXAMPLE). DITS AND DAHS ARE HOW MORSE CODE WOULD SOUND AURALLY (DIT DIT DIT DAH DAH DAH DIT DIT DIT).

Zhouqin (C.C.) Burnikel said...

sallyjane,

I got your point on the PRELAW clueing. Will add it to my Letter to the Editor this week.

"Olympia" was Jackie Kennedy's favorite painting when asked by the Press during their visit to Paris in 1961. It caused quite a stir.

Anonymous at 1:48pm,

Thank you very much for the explanation.

jolienb said...

i'm new the google, but have become a fan of crossword puzzles. After developing anorexia and battling it everyday, crossword puzzles during meal time keeps my mind of the meal and more on the puzzle.
but, i have troube and after i fill in all i know and google a few answers...
i was so happy to find that the Bakersfield Californian puzzles are the same as Star Tribunes.

So, I'm joining the group and plan on commenting in the future!

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure how to answer your poll. I usually work on the puzzle for 20-30 minutes, get about half of it done. Then I give up and turn to the Sudoku puzzle while my wife laughs at me about all the things I didn't know.

Jillz801 said...

I thought this puzzle was fairly easy today. It was the first time in awhile that I finished by myself! :) Usually I have to check up with your blog, which I love by the way!

I don't usually time myself because I end up doing other things while working on the puzzle, but I'd say it took me about 15 minutes tonight.

I vary the way I solve the puzzle. Some days I will do all the across and come back and do the down. Sometimes I will fill in a clue and then start on the next clue of the last letter filled in. Sometimes I start at the bottom and go backwards... it just depends!

Til tomorrow!

Unknown said...

you can do the star tribune crossword online - I found it at:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/chi-sa-crossword-htmlpage,0,1710056.htmlpage

I like your blog I found it while searching for crossword clues to the crossword puzzle in the oregonian - It is the same one - they don't say that it is the star tribune.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous @ 7:56 PM,

I chuckled to myself when I read your post because when I get frustrated with a crossword, I immediately flip to the Soduku puzzle to distract myself. I know it's bad, though, when I get stumped on the Soduku! :o)

Zhouqin (C.C.) Burnikel said...

Jolienb,

Solving crosswords will distract you from food, for a short period of time. But it won't solve your problem. You have to find the ROOT cause and confront it. Otherwise you will be battling anorexia forever.

Tim,

There are total 49 different newspapers carrying out the Tribune Media syndication puzzle, including Star Tribune, Chicago Tribune, the Oregonian, NY Daily News, etc.

Katherine said...

Tim, I tried to get to the crossword with the link in your blog, but I could not get to it. Was some of the URL cut off in your blog?

Zhouqin (C.C.) Burnikel said...

Katherine,

Just google "Chicago Tribune Daily Crossword", it will come up.

I have no idea how to make a link from the Blog Comment section.

Anonymous said...

MKat et al....I do the same thing...turn to the Sudoku for awhile to distract me. Sometimes hubby is home and he will help (more so with the NYT). However, as the week goes on the Sudoku gets harder...I start, dh finishes ALL!

I never knew it was the Star Tribune Crossword here in Seattle either...It just says "Daily Crossword".

Thanks everyone for being here.

AlohaSpirit in Seattle where it's raining of course!

jolienb said...

Yes, i have found the root of it.
I went to a treatment center even, but the road to recovery is long for everyone.
Crosswords not only help the anxiety of meals, but i have become like a human thesaurus in school.
People are like, "where do you come up with these words?" and i say, "yesterday-i believe it was 37 down:]"

Zhouqin (C.C.) Burnikel said...

Jolienb,

You made me laugh with your 37D reply. I tend to use "olio" often, or "eke out" something.

I am glad you found the root cause. Just keep your eyes on your goal.